Family Musings

I love that my husband is a teacher. But it never fails that, at the beginning of each school year (and during cold & flu season), he brings some sort of cold home to us. It's inevitable. Sometimes he gets sick too, but usually he is just the carrier for one of us to get sick. He is not to blame. It happened when I was a teacher too. And it happens to most of my friends who are teachers. Colds are an occupational hazard. I've got some ideas for ways we can minimize our exposure to those cold germs and thought it would be appropriate to share them with you as we enter into another cold & flu season. First, I've taught (or am still teaching) both of my girls to sneeze or cough into their elbows(edited to add that I now know this is called the "Dracula"). It really does lessen the chance of spreading germs, especially considering they no longer have "sneeze" on their hands waiting to be shared with the nearest toy or family member. I even h...

After watching a couple of the documentaries on the list I shared last week , I think I want to start juicing. I'm up in the air as to whether or not it will just be a breakfast kind of thing, or if I might want to try a 5-15 day juice fast. I'm also wondering how something like juicing might affect my hormones and brain chemistry, as related to my depression. I've spent nearly 2 hours on Amazon.com and a couple of other sites between last night and today trying to figure out which one I want to get. I've read almost every review on Amazon for the 15-20 juicers that had a 4-star or higher rating and I think I've narrowed the list down to 4 possibilities. Except for one, they are all in the $135 range. The reason I'm doing so much research is that I don't generally have $135 laying around to just go buy something on a whim. In fact, I'm clearing out some clutter in our house with the intention that it might fund this purchase. I need to ensure that I...

I'll admit it. I'm kind of a geek in that I like to watch documentaries. My favorite so far this year has been Helvetica , a documentary devoted to the famous font. It really was quite fascinating. Trust me. I was searching for Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead based on the recommendation of a couple of friends who had seen in and within 2 minutes, I'd added 13 documentaries to my Netflix instant streaming queue. It is almost certain that I won't agree with the perspective of all of the film makers, but it will be interesting to compare all the different viewpoints and perspectives. So, here is a list of the documentaries I've added. There is a definite theme here and you'll see that they all deal with food or water as it relates to our health or how we treat it as a resource. Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead Deconstructing Supper Ingredients Broken Limbs The Future of Food Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution What's On Your Plate The Real Dirt on Far...

Lots of people accuse social media participants like myself of only presenting the good side of our lives. There has even been research showing that the more time people spend on social media (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc...), the more likely they are to be depressed. The theory is that they think everyone else has a great life because we all post cute stories about our super smart kids or brag on our husbands for being so awesome. And that theory makes sense to me. On the flip side, I've always thought about myself as a blogger who presented my life as real. I've shown you pictures of my messy house , Bruce's unemployment ,  Mary's medical issues , shared my bad mothering moments , and how my vanity kept me from serving my family . Of course, I try not to share stories of my girls that I think will embarrass them when they are older or stories about fights with my husband. I learned a long time ago that even though we may resolve the issue in our marriage, other peo...

Tomorrow is the day I prove once again how crazy I am. :) Tomorrow I will walk 13.1 miles with my friends Alisa and Kelly in the Disney Princess Half Marathon. I have my bib. I have my tag on my shoe. I have my tutu made. And my pink plastic tiara is sitting on top of my head as I type this. Though I may wear this pink cowboy hat instead. It lights up! You can always leave me a supportive message using the Runtastic app on the left side of my page. Or you can go here ( http://live.activeresult.com/msg/MSG-signup.tcl?event_id=50 ) and sign up to receive emails or text messages with details about my progress or finish times. So, which hat do you think I should wear???

Two days ago I made a big decision. It was a follow-up decision to a commitment I had made last Spring and then broke.  I decided to spend the next 37 days training for the Disney Princess Half-Marathon .  Yes. You read the right. I decided less than 6 weeks before a 13.2 mile race to begin training.  It all started in the Spring of 2010 when I called my friend Kelly in CA and asked her to do this race with me. She said yes and then promptly registered. I enrolled in a C25K class, and then dropped out after 8 or 9 weeks because I didn't enjoy running. Which I had already known. ( Except for this one strange morning last summer .) Then, I kind of forgot about my promise to Kelly. Until she posted on FB two days ago that she bought her plane ticket to come to FL and had made arrangements for someone to watch her 6 year old son. Uh-oh! I immediately checked and there was still room to register for the race. It was 94% full (still is as of this morning). I a...

I discovered the joy of making your own granola bars this week. And I might be hooked now. The recipe is super easy and highly customizable. I am looking forward to trying lots of different variations of it. Plus, it is highly frugal to make your own granola bars. For the cost of one box at the store I can make this recipe, which gives you any where from 24-30 bars depending on how you cut them. My friend Kim gave me the recipe, but she got it from someone else. So I'm just calling this Someone Else's Granola Bars. They come out soft and chewy and addictive. Someone Else's Granola Bars 4 cups rolled oats 1 cup whole wheat flour ¼ cup wheat germ or flax seed (I have used flax meal) ½ tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda ½ cup brown sugar ½ cup sunflower seeds, pepitas, walnuts, almonds, pecans, etc… any kind of nut. 1 cup any – craisins, raisins, dried apricots, dried apples, etc… 2/3 cup peanut butter 1 Tbsp vegetable oil 1 egg, slightly beaten ¼ cup water ½ cup hone...

I was just reading my previous post about Random Happenings at the Family Musings House when I realized the irony from posting these two pictures right next to each other. I guess these pictures are kind of like my weight loss efforts... I operate in the extreme baby!

This morning was a great morning to run. By 6 am there was just enough light to see where I was going. The day was filled with promise and hope. By 7 am when I was done, it was clear this is going to be an overcast and rainy day. And somewhere between 6 am and 7 am, about the time I hit the end of mile 2 on my run around Lake Hollingsworth this morning, I lost something. It wasn't something I really liked anyway. I won't even miss it. And honestly, I hope it dove into the lake and drowned. It was a little part of the old me. She just decided she couldn't keep up with my new, faster pace. She wanted to walk. I wanted to run. So we parted ways. With it, she took her head first, hunched should running posture. I kept my feet first, push off on the toes running stride. What a difference that made! Saying good by to the old me feels good. Really good. What are you saying good by to this week?

Nearly four and a half years ago, I experienced the most successful weight loss of my adult life - nearly 60 pounds while a member of Weight Watchers. Now, I find myself 7 pounds heavier than I was at the beginning of that journey with two little girls who have a lot to learn from me. I want to have more energy for chasing them around the play ground. I want them to learn to love their fruits and veggies. I want my husband to think he has the hottest wife in the room. I can do or be all of these things. This year, 2010, God has been working on me and my relationship to food. He has put some amazing women back in my path (Kelly and Babs, I'm talking about you!) to show me what is really happening in the love triangle between the plate, my mouth, and my heart. I know that food is meant to nourish my body, not my soul. That is God's job. With God leading the way (most days), I am once again following the Weight Watchers program (I've lost 6.6 pounds so far) and have ta...

I loved Charlotte. I wanted to set a good example for her. But really, can an infant really understand what the Little Debbie wrappers represent? Nah! I thought to myself, I'll wait until she is a little older than I'll buckle down and get my weight under control. And I did, sorta. When we moved to Lakeland I re-joined Weight Watchers and also purchased a gym membership. I made a friend to go with me. I even took four personal training sessions. But I just couldn't make it stick. I made marginal progress and eventually convinced Bruce it was time to try for another baby. My minor weight loss success was enough to convince him I meant business. I did mean business. I really wanted to be healthier. My second pregnancy was going to be more natural and a midwife was involved. I managed to keep my weight gain at a healthy level, though it was on the high side of the scale this time. Once Mary was born in the fall of 2009, I repeated the same cycle of sleeplessness. There w...

This is turning into weight loss week... hope you don't mind. Here are some pictures of what I looked like in 2006, shortly before I became pregnant with Charlotte. I am posting them to remind me of my prior success. Weight Watchers has a fancy name for this, Recall, or something. They teach that in order to stay the course, we should remind ourselves of when we've been successful in the past. This will motivate us. I just have to add that the outfit in the second picture came from Ann Taylor. That really is my style and my whole wardrobe would come from Ann Taylor if a) my budget allowed it and b) my body could wear her clothes. --------------- For more Wordless Wednesdays, visit 5 Minutes for Mom At Home with Auntie E Experimental Mommy From Val's Kitchen Go Graham Go! Happily Blended Here and There Live and Love...Out Loud Look What Mom Found The Mommy-Files Momspective Mom Knows It All What's That Smell? Wordless Wednesday 7 Clown Circus - Wordful Wednesday

I don't think I ever really intended to use my blog as a place to seek weight loss motivation, but ultimately, what I need is accountability. And I have some great readers that I know will encourage me and follow up with me as I am trying to lose weight in 2010. A little more about my weight loss in 2006... I was very successful on Weight Watchers because of the weekly accountability and encouragement it provided. My leader was AWESOME and REAL and we still keep in touch until this day. Through Weight Watchers, I lost nearly 60 pounds in 11 months. That was about 5.5 pounds per month, which is a very healthy rate of weight loss. My exercise routine consisted of daily walking Monday - Friday plus several sessions with a personal trainer. My trainer pushed me harder than I would have pushed myself and wouldn't let me get away with saying no to something. I sweat like a pig when we worked out together and wouldn't trade that experience for anything. It was money well spe...

This is a repost of something I wrote in 2006 when I began the first successful weight loss program of my adult life. I thought it was valuable to take a look back now that I am in a similar mental place with my current weight loss. I'll be following up over the next week or so about what has been happening since then. Losing weight is hard. Being fat is hard. Now, pick your hard. I pick losing weight. I have had weight issues since about sixth grade when my family moved to a new town right at the beginning of summer. I did not know anyone in town and spent most of the summer eating to stave off the boredom that came with my loneliness. That began a pattern in my life of turning to food to solve all sorts of emotional issues. I was rewarded for good deeds with food treats, anything from a simple desert to a special meal out at a restaurant. I was told to cheer up and have a cookie; it would make me feel better. (Note: I'm not complaining about my parents. Hi...

When I was in college, one of my favorite cheap meals was white rice with a can of vegetables (usually corn) mixed in. Even now, when I recreate that college standby I get a little nostalgic for my roommates. That wasn't a very healthy meal though, for lots of reasons. Now that I am an adult though, our family has been eating whole grain bread for at least a few years. I stopped buying white bread about the time Charlotte was born. It was an easy transition and now I find white bread sandwiches pretty boring because of the lack of texture and flavor. I tried to make the switch to brown rice in our quest to be healthier, but it has been a less smooth transition. Brown rice just doesn't have the same mouth feel as white rice. Fortunately, Uncle Ben's has a solution coming in July that pairs the fiber of brown rice with the taste and texture of white rice. This makes me happy, especially since I am back on Weight Watchers again and need to make sure I get lots of fiber in...

I really should post a picture, but my computer is in the shop being repaired... I just wanted to let you all know that I am not crazy. I know. You don't believe me. Only crazy people would tell the world on a blog that they aren't crazy. But let me explain. I have been horribly fatigued for the last couple of weeks and while, Bruce has been kind enough to let me sleep until 9 am several mornings, I just can't get make it through most days without an extra cat nap. When I got pregnant, I expected to wake up to go to the bathroom and I knew there would be leg cramps. What I never counted on this time was getting pregnancy-induced restless leg syndrome . I would lay in bed everynight thinking I was nuts because I needed to move my legs. It seemed nuts to me and no matter how active I tried to be, to wear my legs out, they still wanted to move when I hit the sack. So now, I am going to increase my folate and iron and see if that offers any relief. Let's pray it do...

It is true... I don't functionwell  unless I have a block of uninterrupted time each day to just be, or veg, or do whatever I want to do. Recently, my days have been arranged so that I am not getting that. I am not getting the nap time in the middle of the day to relax and make my home a haven. My house has become so overwhelmingly chaotic I really don't know where to start when all I get are 10-15 min intervals to even try. Each thing that needs to be done needs at least 30 minutes. It is making me cranky. I yelled at Charlotte today. I don't really think I've ever done that before, at least just not like I did today. I even sent a mean text message to my husband because I thought he was ignoring me. He wasn't, he just had a meeting after school and hadn't had time yet to reply to my earlier messages. Those last 2 events opened my eyes to how out of whack I am right now. It isn't just being tired or just being pregnant. I need to take some me time and...

I mentioned recently that I am participating in the local Making Strides for the Cure walk. I am very excited that I have raised more than half of the goal that I set. My current goal is $250. Would you please consider making a donation to help me reach that goal? Below is a message from the American Cancer Society about the walk and the work is supports. This year, hundreds of thousands of people will hear the words "You have breast cancer," and there's a good chance that some of them will be people we know and love. I have chosen to fight back against this disease and help make a difference by participating in the American Cancer Society, Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, and I hope you will join me by making a donation in support of my effort. Making Strides Against Breast Cancer is a noncompetitive walk that takes place in 120 communities across the country. From Arizona to Maine and Washington to Florida, Making Strides walkers unite to honor breast cance...

After a busy, food-filled weekend, I have another verse about our bodies. Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. Romans 12.1 ( HCSB ) How can my body to pleasing to God? It has a lot of extra fat, my heart and lungs aren't as efficient as they were designed to be, and it partakes of lots of unholy eating. All in all, I don't think it is pleasing to God the way it is. Sure, I can still, in faith, do things with my body that please God, like make a meal for a sick friend or rock my baby gently to sleep. But I should do more. I should treat my body as the temple God created it to be. First Corinthians 6.19-20 says: Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body. ( HCSB ) Would I go into a church and smear trash all ov...

I've decided to begin a new series of posts in which I will share my meditations on certain passages of Scripture. Specifically, I want to start by looking at passages that deal with our bodies and how God tells us to care for them. Since I as a teenager, I've had issues with controlling my weight, mostly because I have not been able to control my eating habits. I shared with my husband this morning that I am often planning when, what, and where the next meal will be. It is taking mental energy away from higher pursuits and I need to get this part of my thought life under control. That is why I have chosen this passage for Week #1: "This is why I tell you: Don't worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky: they don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you worth mor...